This invention relates to pipe coupling devices.
There are many different types of pipe coupling devices. The most suitable type of pipe coupling device for use in a particular system is dependent upon parameters of the system.
Pipeline charging systems which deliver coal to a coke oven present parameters that are severe. The coking process requires the pipeline charging system to transport crushed coal to the coke oven using superheated steam as the transport medium. The single pipe which customarily connects the coke oven to the coal crushing and steam induction unit (hereinafter referred to as feeder unit) is subject to stress which causes the pipe to buckle. The presence of superheated steam and crushed coal within the pipe causes coal tars to be secreted from the coal in the pipe. The coal tar tends to congregate in the buckled portion of the pipe, blocking or severely inhibiting flow through the pipe. Buckling of the pipe is caused by thermal expansion of the coke oven which achieves a much greater temperature than the pipe. The pipe is customarily fixably mounted to the roof of a coke oven and to the feeder unit. As the coke oven roof displaces vertically due to coke oven thermal expansion, the pipe is subjected to stress due to the lack of comparable expansion or motion of the feeder unit; the stress causing the pipe to buckle. A piping coupler able to compensate for the vertical expansion of the coke oven would be advantageous to the system; however, the extreme heat predicted by the follow of superheated steam through the pipe forcloses the deployment of conventional couplers.
The present invention would provide a pipe coupling arrangement which would allow the sealable coupling of pipes while compensating for generally transverse motion of the coupled pipes relative to each other. The invention can be employed to sealably couple pipes, notwithstanding, the passage of a relatively high temperature substance therethrough.